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RELIGIOUS SECTS
his conversancy with the Ilindu Šástras, and evidently limited knowledge of the Mohammedan authorities in matters of religion, render such a supposition perfectly i warrantable: at any rate tradition represents it to have occasioned a contest between them and the Hindus respecting the disposal of his corpse, the latter insisting on burning, the Musalmans on burying it; in the midst of the dispute, Kabir himself appeared amongst them, and desiring them to look under the cloth supposed to cover his mortal remains, imme. diately vanished: on obeying his instructions, they found nothing under the cloth, but a heap of flowers: one half of these Banár Rájá or Birsinha Rájú, then Rájá of Benares, removed to that City, where they were burnt, and where he appropriated the spot now called the Kabir Chaura to the reception of their ashes, whilst Bijili Kuán Putthán, the head of the Mohammedan party, erected a tomb over the other portion at Magar near Gorakhpur, where Kabir had died. This latter place was endowed by Mansur Ali KHÁn with several villages, and it divides with the Chaura the pilgrimage of the followers of this sect.
The Kabir Panthis in consequence of their Master having been the reputed disciple of RÁMÁNAND, and of their paying more respect to VISHẢu, than the other Members of the Hindu triad, are always included amongst the Vaishnava sects, and maintain with most of them, the Rámárats especially, a friendly intercourse and political alliance: it is no part of their faith, however, to worship any Hindu deity, or to observe
